The Death of Organic?

Yesterday the USDA deregulated Monsanto's Genetically Engineered alfalfa.  This should come as no surprise given the revolving door between the corporation and the government body.  Over a quarter million people contacted their congressional representatives and the agency opposing deregulation and consequent commercial release of the GE seed.  But, public opinion doesn't win elections and appointments like loyalty to the biotech industry does.    

Meanwhile, Land O' Lakes' subsidiary Forage Genetics, has already stock-piled millions of pounds of seed, and are just waiting to pull it out of storage, make hay, feed some cows, feed you some dairy product, contaminate their neighbor's fields with Monsanto patented DNA, and probably get their neighbor sued by Monsanto for patent infringement.  Thanks Secretary Vilsack and his team for making it clear whose interests the USDA are really serving.

Of course, organic has already been bought and sold, becoming little more than a buzz word, a marketing opportunity for otherwise ethic-lacking corporations.  Agribusinesses continue to buy up smaller organic producers, making the consumer's climate murky at best. Consult below to see who profits from your seemingly responsible consumer choices.




The core values at the founding of the organic movement remain important, and are fortunately very much alive in the Local Food Movement.  Eating local and knowing your farmers allow you to disengage from this scenario where your interests are secondary to profit margins and shareholders.  It seems radical to say I'm not only stepping away from conventional but also organic, but at some point you have to see that the wolf in the sheep suit is still a carnivorous predator, not the cuddly wool ball he's pretending to be.  

Big organic has brought more responsible growing practices to industrial agriculture, no question about it.  This is a good thing.  But, the industrial scale is not sustainable in agriculture.  It is simply a fact that small, diverse farms are more productive than large industrialized farms producing in monoculture.  They can produce more on less, and there simply aren't enough of them yet.  If this seems contrary to what you've heard before, that we need huge, industrial farms to produce enough food for our growing population, that we can't feed the world organically, that we need GE commodity crops, people are starving, it is.  We've all heard the propaganda peddled by those profiteering off of the industrial mode of food production.  We have collectively bought into it, that life off the farm is preferable, that office jobs or a gig at Walmart trumps manual labor, that industrial agriculture offers us higher quality of life.  Industrial agriculture means less work, by fewer people, with higher yields - but at what cost, and yields of what?  GE corn and soy that are being creatively reconstructed in laboratories to provide us with cheap, nutrient-lacking, bulk food products that are making us sick.   

Some industrial organic farms are starting to grow a diverse range of crops, but the processing needs become economically prohibitive.  If you have the acreage and infrastructure to grow and distribute lettuce on an industrial scale, adding the systems and equipment needed to grow and distribute other vegetables doesn't make sense economically, and if that's what matters, it won't happen.  That is what matters when your organic farm gets bought out by General Mills, regardless of your good intentions.

Opting instead to support your local farmers has far reaching and tangible benefits.  It builds community and your local economy, it puts healthy fresh food in your stomach, requires far less petroleum, and restores accountability to our food system.  If you need further evidence or information concerning the merits of eating local see my blog Why Local, Revisited ...

I'm running out of steam, it is simply hard to remain optimistic when the USDA shows so clearly that it is merely a puppet of Monsanto - not a puppet of the American people like it's designed to be.   

The Center for Food Saftey has been waiting for the USDA's decision on the matter for action to resume in their case fighting the release of GE alfalfa.  The legislative and executive branches have failed us, we'll just have to put our hope in the judiciary.             

But for now, there is mourning in America.